This invention relates to a system for, and method of, sending facsimile documents either on a free basis or a fee basis at the choice of a customer who is sending the document. The invention also relates to a system for, and a method, of using the Internet system to send the document by facsimile either on the free basis or the fee basis.
Commercial organizations send facsimiles in great volume to recipients daily. For example, a worldwide organization such as Hilton Hotels may send hundreds of thousands of facsimiles every month either on its own behalf or on behalf of its room occupants. A worldwide organization such as Hilton Hotels then has to absorb the cost of sending such facsimiles on its own behalf or has to charge its room occupants for the costs of sending the facsimiles requested by its room occupants.
An organization such as Hilton Hotels would like to be relieved of the financial burden of sending facsimiles on its own behalf and on behalf of its room occupants. Organizations such as Hilton Hotels have wrestled with the problem of obtaining relief from such financial burdens but have been unable to provide a system or adopt a method for accomplishing this. It will be appreciated that Hilton Hotels is used only as an example to indicate the problems involved and that there are a large number of organizations which would like to eliminate similar financial burdens.
This invention involves a system for, and method of, eliminating the financial burden to organizations such as Hilton Hotels in sending facsimiles to recipients on its own behalf and on behalf of its room occupants. In one embodiment of the invention, a document to be sent by facsimile by a customer (e.g. Hilton Hotels) to a recipient is processed by a web server at a web site to determine from the customer whether the customer wishes to send the document for free or for a fee.
If the customer indicates the customer""s desire to facsimile the document for free, a message, preferably an advertisement, is added by the web server at the web site to the facsimile document before the document is facsimiled to the recipient. Preferably the advertisement is disposed by the web server at the web site in the vertical blank spaces at the opposite sides of the document. Before the document is facsimiled, the web server determines from the customer through the Internet system whether the customer is a first time user at the web site and, if so, the web server obtains background information through the Internet system concerning the customer. If the customer is sending the facsimile document for a fee, the web server makes certain that the customer has sufficient money in the customer""s account to pay for the cost of sending the document to the recipient.
The customer may communicate with the web server through the Internet system either from a web browser hooked into the Internet system or from a desk top individual to the customer and pre-connected by software known as a printer driver to the web site of the service provider. A facsimile server is provided at the web site to send the facsimile message through telephone lines to the recipient.